Unearthing the Unexplored: A Critical Companion to Fourth World Literature

Unearthing the Unexplored brings under one roof critical essays on Indian Adivasi, Native American, Canadian First Nations, and Australian Aboriginal literature. The articles cover wide-ranging topics such as the political uprising and the continued oppression of the Adivasis in India, importance of oral tradition, the centrality of community living and extended families, spirituality, and gender equality among indigenous communities, the relationship between natives and their tradition against the inclination to homogenize under the claims of nationality, and the survival of native peoples against the onslaughts of colonization. The writers have studied Fourth World literature from native perspective bringing to the fore the distinct features that make the mind and body of the cultures from which they sprang. A detailed introduction presents a bird’s-eye-view of the development of indigenous literature in India, Canada, USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Students and scholars attempting to study the literature of the Fourth World peoples would find this volume indispensible.